america loses.

time to announce the winner of the quote game!

4th place is...

sarah with 3 right answers.

3rd place is....

leah with 4 right answers.

2nd place is...

beth with five right answers.

and the winner is...

my friend from high school, emily! with EIGHT answers right! amazing. her husband is in the navy. just thought i'd add that. she has a cooking blog, and an etsy with really cute jewelry and other crafts.

so here are the quotes, matched with my margin notes. and a brief explanation, if necessary.

"Before concluding our narrative, we offer a reminder, and an explanation, of the one period in which the government as a whole seemed to be acting in concert to deal with terrorism - the last weeks of December 1999 preceding the millennium." - quote

Y2K. come on. aren't we all kind of embarrassed by the frenzy/fear/irrational behavior that was displayed during that time? and it's being used as an example of how the government did something well. so...

"what a great example of how rational our government is" - note.

"In chapter 4, we mentioned officials worriedly discussing, in 1998, reports that Bin Ladin's associates thought their leader was intent on carrying out a 'Hiroshima.'" - report

"what incredible irony" - note

the terrorist was modeling his behavior after the united states government. read that a few times. just...think about that.

"Vague goals match an amorphous picture of the enemy. Al Qaeda and its affiliates are popularly described as being all over the world, adaptable, resilient, needing little higher-level organization, and capable of anything. The American people are thus given the picture of an omnipotent, unslayable hydra of destruction." - report

"and who painted that picture?" - note

i have not the words.

"...the administration, and the CIA in particular, was in the midst of intense scrutiny and criticism in May 1999 because faulty intelligence had just led the United States to mistakenly bomb the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the NATO war against Serbia." - report

"? wow." - note

is it really that shocking that people in the world want to attack us?

this next one is painful.

"American foreign policy is part of the message. America's policy choices have consequences. Right or wrong, it is simply a fact that American policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American actions in Iraq are dominant staples of popular commentary across the Arab and Muslim world. That does not mean U.S. choices have been wrong." - report

"oh, so close" - note

any war against any enemy will be LOST if the diagnosis of the problem is incorrect. i was following the train of thought until that last line. this country does not rule the world. we have to consider what other nations think of our actions. we can't do whatever we want.

oh wait, this one is pretty painful too:

"...Berger recalled that to go to war, a president needs to be able to say that his senior intelligence and law enforcement officers have concluded who is responsible." - report

"YES" - note

berger recalled. berger RECALLED???????? as an afterthought? a fleeting thought?

oh he recalled that, did he.

seems.

sort of.

essential.

moving on.

"In the nearly three years since 9/11, Americans have become better protected against terrorist attack. Some of the changes are due to government action, such as new precautions to protect aircraft. A portion can be attributed to the sheer scale of spending and effort. Publicity and the vigilance of ordinary Americans also make a difference. But the President and other officials acknowledge that although Americans may be safer, they are not safe." - report

"this makes me want to puke in someone's face." - note

once again, in order to keep support for the wars going, people have to be made to be afraid. as long as people are afraid...they'll submit to anything. any TSA regulations. any kind of discrimination of people. profiling. etc. this makes me want to puke in someone's face.

"Officers at the CIA had worried that giving him a green light might cross the line into violation of the assassination ban." - report

"ahh, i miss the days when we frowned on assassinations." - note

because, if you didn't know, there are some u.s. citizens targeted for assassinations. without a trial. does it strike anyone else as odd that we'd deny our own citizens basic rights, while deeming it our responsibility to spread democracy to every corner of the earth?

"Allegations that the United States abused prisoners in its custody make it harder to build the diplomatic, political, and military alliances the government will need." - report

"to put it mildly." - note

sweet, humanitarian, moral leader of the world, united states government...abuser of prisoners...

huh?

"The United States should rebuild the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope. Where such assistance is provided, it should be identified as coming from the citizens of the United States." - report

"for crying out loud, is this a PR campaign or a genuine desire for change?" - note

the end.